The War on Women makes its way to Michigan

I had the opportunity to hear Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, speak earlier this evening. She ended her speech by reminding people that, 96 years ago, Margaret Sanger was arrested for handing out information on birth control to poor, immigrant women in Brooklyn. Richards then mentioned that, last month alone, some 4.4 million people accessed similar birth control information from the Planned Parenthood website. Her point, I think, was that, despite the attempts of conservatives, over the past 100 years, we’re continuing to make progress. Along those same lines, she noted the huge outpouring of support that Planned Parenthood received when the Komen Foundation, a few months ago, announced that they would be putting politics before women’s health, and cutting financial support. The response, as she said, was immediate and overwhelming. Some 1.3 million tweets were sent by Planned Parenthood supporters, and Komen was forced to back down. And, Planned Parenthood raised an incredible amout of money from individual donors as a result, further growing their already large base of support. Unfortunately, however, the Republicans aren’t giving up. They’re continuing to push an extremist agenda that seeks to limit reproductive freedom. Today, in fact, Republicans in the Michigan House of Representatives introduced a 60-page omnibus bill that would, if passed, effectively end abortion access, and seriously limit women’s reproductive options across the state. The ACLU is calling the legislation, “sweeping and unprecedented,” and Meghan Groen, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan, has referred to it as, “the most extreme legislation we’re seeing anywhere in the country.”

According to our friends at Eclectablog, the Health Policy House Committee held a hearing this morning on the legislation, which was “abruptly ended,” when it became evident that opponents of the initiative intended to voice their concerns. The committee, at this point, hurriedly blessed the legislation, and then handed the it off to the full House for a vote. Fortunately, though, the House adjourned this evening without having addressed it. Word is, the vote could come as early as Monday or Tuesday of next week. And, in that time, Planned Parenthood is doing everything in its power to get the word out, and mobilize its forces to block the omnibus bill from being rushed through by Republicans… Here’s their petition.

…House Bills 5711, 5712, and 5713 represent a sweeping and unprecedented attack on women’s reproductive health. It is vague, poorly drafted, and will have incredibly serious ramifications for women’s access to health care services. It is being rushed through with only a week from introduction to committee and will require a strong response from YOU to ensure defeat.

Michigan women need your help today! Take a stand and tell your representative to treat women with the respect they deserve!

The legislation includes but is not limited to:

Back Door Abortion Ban

The intention of this legislation is to completely shut down all abortion providers by instituting targeted, harmful, and medically unnecessary regulation on health centers that provide abortion services. Supporters of these regulations are political organizations who believe that all abortion care should be illegal, no exceptions. This is an attempt to shut down all abortion providers in the state in a backdoor attempt to ban abortion. If these attacks succeed, women will pay the price. They will pay with their rights, their health, and their lives.

Attack on Doctors

This legislation is an outright attack on physicians’ ability to practice medicine. Under these bills, doctors would be forced to go against their best medical knowledge when providing services to patients. It allows medicine to be dictated by politics, not by science.

Furthermore, the legislation singles out doctors that perform abortion care. It is filled with many aspects that violate standard obstetric practice, interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, and are dangerous to women’s health. It puts increased liability on physicians and sends the message that politicians, not doctors, know what is best for women.

Jeopardizes Women’s Health

Included in this legislation is a restrictive ban seeking to limit access to abortion services. The ban goes against the ruling of Roe v. Wade. Moreover, it does NOT include an exemption for rape, incest, fetal anomaly, or health of the woman, and it leaves women in an emergency situation in peril.

Make no mistake—this legislation is about politics. When women do not have access to abortion services, it doesn’t go away. Women still have abortions—just less safe abortions. Making abortion a crime puts women’s lives and health at great risk. Politically motivated legislation that makes it more difficult for health centers to provide high-quality health care only makes it harder for women and couples to access critical reproductive health care services, including lifesaving cancer screenings, contraception, STD prevention and treatment, and continued access to safe and compassionate abortion care.

This legislation must be stopped! Take a stand and tell the Michigan Legislature that women & their doctors should make health care decisions, not politicians! House Bills 5711, 5712, and 5713 are an insult to women, doctors, families, and the residents of Michigan.

If you would like to join me in signing this petition, you can do so here.

And, once you’ve signed the petition, I’d appreciate it if you would contact your member of the Michigan House, and let him/her know how you feel. If you’ve never called or written, you’ll find your Representative’s contact information here.

One last thing… For those of you who think I might be overstating the intention of Republican legislators when I say that this is about defunding Planned Parenthood, and limiting reproductive options for women, I offer the following quote from Representative Mike Shirkey, from Clark Lake, Michigan… “[Abortion] is nothing short of infanticide. Until we completely eliminate abortions in Michigan and completely defund Planned Parenthood, we have work to do.”

[note: The photo above was taken at Netroots Nation earlier this evening. In case it’s not clear in the photo, the folks from Planned Parenthood were handing out chocolates in the iconic shape of birth control pill packaging.]

51 Comments

Abortion is not birth control. It is not health care. It does not promote the health of anyone. It is murder. Since 1973, it occurs about 1.3 million times a year in the U.S. It is the leading cause of death in our country. More unborn babies die from abortion than do persons of all ages from the next two most common causes of death – heart disease and cancer combined. Abortion has become so easily accessible that many don’t bother using any birth control. From its inception, Planned Parenthood has targeted its services to low income, minority women in order to further an evil eugenic philosophy.

Planned Parenthood isn’t necessary. Women can take responsibility for themselves. Cecile Richards won’t tell you this, but every woman in America has it within her power to take responsibility for her own body. All it requires is single, inexpensive aspirin.

@EOS, If we use your definition of life, then intentional abortion is NOT the leading cause of death, spontaneous abortion is (i.e. miscarriage). Roughly 30% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Perhaps you should be more concerned with providing health care to women.

As much as I would like abortion to be non existent, taking away women’s reproductive rights is not the way. The best way to get rid of abortion is to enact family and woman friendly economic and social policies like universal healthcare, universal daycare, and mandated paid maternity leave. One of the leading factors that goes into a woman’s decision to terminate is her financial status. Unfortunately, those in the pro life movement seem to so committed to hyper-capitalism that they would risk the unborn they claim to care about in favor of eliminating all social welfare programs. Contrary to what they think, women aren’t going to stop having abortions if they are made illegal again. Women will seek them out via unsafe and unregulated underground and back alley abortionists. Making abortion safe, legal, and exceedingly rare through family and woman friendly social policies is the best way to reduce their number.

In 1994, 42% of the women who aborted their babies as a result of an unintended pregnancy had not used any birth control in the month prior to conception.

Sara-

One would hope that one of the leading factors that a woman considers before she engages in unprotected sex is whether she is in a financial position to care for a child. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “reproductive rights”. Is it the right of every woman to have as many children as she can possibly conceive and the obligation of all others to provide universal daycare and woman friendly social policies for her?

Mark k: “dirt that statement will be what saves this country from people who only want free stuff. As Romney said ‘you want free stuff vote for the other guy.'”

The rich benefit greatly from participating in our economic system, and they should pay for that opportunity an amount that allows this country to have a standard of living that we decide is fair. I’m hoping that we start taxing the rich more, ASAP.

I wonder if Romney’s children have gotten and will inherit a bunch of free stuff from him. Did Romney get a bunch of free stuff from his parents? Yes. Mark k, if you truly don’t like people getting free stuff, then swear off the system of privilege and swear the system of inheritance that we have in this country.

I don’t know about the “why” and I never claimed causation. Just the fact that abortion is used instead of birth control by many. And I supported that statement with legitimate research , albeit somewhat dated. Concede the point or you’ll forever be known as the person who can’t acknowledge the truth even when it is clearly presented and backed up with evidence.

dirtgrain: “The rich benefit greatly from participating in our economic system, and they should pay for that opportunity an amount that allows this country to have a standard of living that we decide is fair. I’m hoping that we start taxing the rich more, ASAP.”

dirt everybody has a equal right to participate in our economic system, failure to do so is not someone elses fault. I’ve been active in our economic system since i was 12 y/o and it’s paying off nicly for me, it was not easy, I didn’t have any help past high school, in fact it’s been nothing but hard work for the past 35 years. So tell me again why I should should have to slave for other people to take it easy? When I started dating I remeber buying condoms out of the gas station bathroom in the hopes I’d get lucky, now tell me again why men and women are these days are so weak they cant take care of their own basic needs. Everyone is not a fucking weak ass victim. You people make me sick with your “war on women”, and your “war on black people”. To you everyone is a hopeless victim, my god man, stand up and be an adult!

EOS: “. . . . I don’t know about the “why” and I never claimed causation.”

To clarify for you, I’ll explain.

What you wrote: “Abortion has become so easily accessible that many don’t bother using any birth control.”

Your major premise: abortion has become easily accessible. Your minor premise: many don’t bother using any birth control. Your conclusion: easy access to abortion causes many not to use birth control.

This is an improper syllogism. The flaw is in assuming that many don’t use birth control because abortion is easily accessible. How do you know that is the reason that “many” don’t use birth control? Correlation does not imply causation.

Quit acting like a weasel, and acknowledge that you had no basis for your statement that I initially quoted.

Mark k: “So tell me again why I should should have to slave for other people to take it easy? . . . . Everyone is not a fucking weak ass victim. . . .To you everyone is a hopeless victim, my god man, stand up and be an adult!”

Dude, you started your post by playing the victim card, equating yourself with a slave, and you ended by condemning those who play the victim card. Are you sick of yourself?

dirt my not paying for someones birth control does not make them a victim. If I were to take their birth control away that would make them a victim. Can you understand that at all? I cant make it more simple then that. What about the man who cant get a women, does that mean he can use your woman? If you say no, according to your thought process that would be a war on men, well at least ugly men. You cant make life fair for everyone, without taking from someone else, and where do you draw the line. If you say everyone gets free birth control, why stop there, what about free sex for everyone that wants it, if I have to spend an extra hour at work everyweek for you to have birth control, why not put your wife on her back for an hour every week so the ugly man can get his fair share?

Abortion numbers have been declining for years. In fact, since 1994, the abortion rate has dropped nearly 33 percent.

I’m not sure that greater access to abortion has resulted in an increased number of abortions. In fact, the opposite appears to be true.

It’s worth mentioning that teen pregnancy rates hit an all time high in 1990, but have declined, hitting a 30 year low in 2005. This could also be contributing to a decline in abortion numbers.

Perhaps we could attribute the decline in both abortion and teen pregnancy to birth control? Or wise sexual choices? I would assume a little of both. There’s no doubt that kids today are much more sexually savvy than they were in the early 90’s.

Major premise: Abortion is murder. It is evil. Conclusion: Stop the killing. Save the baby humans.

The fact is that many who terminate an unwanted pregnancy with abortion did not use any form of birth control prior to conception. You can assume anything you want about their motives or their intelligence for that matter.

EOS’ intelligence aside, wouldn’t a good solution be to provide free birth control to everyone and provide educational programs from a very early age on the proper use and importance of said birth control?

I would say this fits into your ultimate goal of preventing the killing of baby humans.

“The increase in the use of emergency contraceptive pills may account for a significant part of the recent reduction in abortions nationally: The number of abortions in 2000 was 110,000 fewer than in 1994, and an estimated 47,000 more abortions were prevented by emergency contraception in 2000 than in 1994; thus, emergency contraception could account for 43% of the decrease in abortions.”

The reduction in surgical abortions is due to the increase in pharmaceutical abortions. Both Plan B (1999) and RU-486 (2000) are abortifacients that don’t prevent the killing of baby humans, but merely kill them at earlier stages of development.

Thank Jesus Christ and God on High, that they finally allowed the Holy Spirit to fill our political leaders so that Plan B and RU-486 were finally made legal in 1999 and 2000. Thanks for sharing that important miracle with us EOS. God does work in mysterious ways, alleluia and amen.

Yes, but he developed his intellectual maturity without any help from the government. His power is God given through the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He had his freedoms taken away for a time, while he had to languish on foreign soil, but has since come back to freedom fold and been properly compensated by the tax payer for his small inconvenience.

Praise be to God, the killer of homosexuals and the protector of children (except for those parts of the Old Testament where His Divine Grace mass murdered children, and the creation on malaria, measles and neo-natal tetanus. God may be the biggest abortionist and child killer in the universe, but He did it without tax payer money).

Let us thank Him (and EOS) for our daily bread, given to us by BoRics and WalMart.

if serving in the military is a “small inconvenience” and provides bountiful riches via tax payer money, then why don’t you choose to serve?

The nonsensical equating of abortion with murder aside, it’s extremely classless to insinuate that soldiers are somehow getting a free ride for a “small inconvenience.” You want to hold policemen and firemen up on a pedestal, yet you talk shit about people that are actually in a war, not a political “war on some minority” but a real god damn war??

I was poking at EOS, who advocated eliminating public schools, fire and police services and has even called for curfews for black people in Ypsilanti Township yet happily and willingly takes tax payer money to jump the social ladder. Hell, if he went to Desert Storm, he gets completely free health care, courtesy of you and me.

That aside, I really don’t understand how serving in the military is any different to being employed as a policeman, for example, or any other public servant. How many cops get shot in the line of duty? How many teachers get assaulted in the war against illiteracy? The military does not deserve to be worshiped like gods.

They take undereducated kids from areas where employment opportunities are low and give them benefits that the rest of America could only dream of, particularly in proportion to how long they work.

We have states that depend on military spending to keep their economies afloat, and the benefits to the rest of the world are less than clear.

A good chunk of the military is welfare, and nothing more. Welfare for unemployable individuals (like EOS), welfare for states that have nothing to trade. Not that I have a problem with things like welfare or free health care, I absolutely don’t, but we should start calling this what it is.

There obviously is a role for the state in crating conditions of social mobility and improving the general welfare of the nation. It’s time right wingers start admitting it.

As for whether I choose to serve or not, I nearly did at one point, simply because I had few other options. I didn’t care about “protecting freedom” or “serving my country.” I was uneducated, without money, without hope and needed some cash and a way out.

We’ve already established that EOS has no intention of buying products made in China and sold at Wal-Mart. He loves embryos, but not enough to pay more for his XXL t-shirts and buckets of caramel corn.

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[…] reproductive freedomBy Mark | June 13, 2012Remember how I told you, late last week, that Michigan legislators were considering a series of bills in the House that would effectively end abor…? Well, it looks as though, despite the efforts of Planned Parenthood, and others, the first, and […]